Pierre Souvestre (1 June 1874 – 26 February 1914) was a French

lawyer A lawyer is a person who practices law. The role of a lawyer varies greatly across different legal jurisdictions. A lawyer can be classified as an advocate, attorney, barrister, canon lawyer, civil law notary, counsel, counselor, solic ...

, journalist, writer and organizer of motor races. He is mostly remembered today for his co-creation with Marcel Allain of the

fictional Fiction is any creative work, chiefly any narrative work, portraying individuals, events, or places Place may refer to: Geography * Place (United States Census Bureau), defined as any concentration of population ** Census-designated place, ...

arch- villain and master

criminal In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definitions of", in Can ...

Fantômas.

Early life

He was born in Plomelin, a commune in Finistère, Brittany, the son of a prefect of Brittany who resigned from his post to settle in Paris. Souvestre studied law at the Lycée Janson-de-Sailly.

Career

He became a lawyer, then a journalist, and a businessman. He owned a garage in Liverpool from 1898, then a second in Paris from 1905. A ''delegate'' of the ''Automobile Club de France'' (fr), he organized motor races, contributed to the newspaper ''L'Auto'' (fr), and wrote technical books, including the 1907 book, ''A.C.F. History of the Automobile'', and the ''French-English Automobile Dictionary'' in 1910. In 1909, already a published author, Souvestre co-wrote, with his friend and assistant Allain, their first novel, ''Le Rour''. '' Investigating Magistrate'' Germain Fuselier, later to become a recurring character in the Fantômas series, appears in this first novel. In February 1911, Allain and Souvestre began the ''Fantômas'' book series at the request of Joseph-Arthème Fayard (fr), a publisher, who wanted to create a new monthly

pulp magazine Pulp magazines (also referred to as "the pulps") were inexpensive fiction magazines that were published from 1896 to the late 1950s. The term "pulp" derives from the cheap wood pulp paper on which the magazines were printed. In contrast, magazine ...

. Allain and Souvestre also jointly wrote the spy series ''Naz-en-l'air''. After his death, Allain continued the ''Fantômas'' saga alone.

Private life

Souvestre took in Marcel Allain when Allain was driven from his home by his father. Souvestre died of a congestion of the lungs. Souvestre's former girlfriend, Henriette Kistler, married Marcel Allain on 27 September 1926. Kistler died in 1956.

Poetry

* Kidding (1894)

Conte

* Collage (1894) * The Misfortunes of Madame Rambuad (1896)

Automobile publications

* Sporty silhouettes (1903) * ''A.C.F. History of the Automobile'' (1907) * The car, how to use it, its maintenance (1908) * French-English Automobile Dictionary (1910)

Other work by Allain and Souvestre

* ''Le Rour'' (1908)

The Fantômas books by Allain and Souvestre

;1911 * 1. ''Fantômas'' (1911; transl. 1915; retransl. 1986) * 2. ''Juve contre Fantômas'' (1911; transl. 1916; retransl. 1987) * 3. ''Le Mort qui Tue'' (1911; transl. 1917) * 4. ''L'Agent Secret'' (1911; transl. 1917) * 5. ''Un Roi Prisonnier de Fantômas'' (1911; transl. 1919) * 6. ''Le Policier Apache'' (1911; transl. 1924) * 7. ''Le Pendu de Londres'' (1911; transl. 1920) * 8. ''La Fille de Fantômas'' (1911; transl. 2006) () * 9. ''Le Fiacre de Nuit'' (1911) * 10. ''La Main Coupée'' (1911; transl. 1924) ;1912 * 11. ''L'Arrestation de Fantômas'' (1912) * 13. ''La Livrée du Crime'' (1912) * 14. ''La Mort de Juve'' (1912) * 15. ''L'Evadée de Saint-Lazare'' (1912) * 16. ''La Disparition de Fandor'' (1912) * 17. ''Le Mariage de Fantômas'' (1912) * 18. ''L'Assassin de Lady Beltham'' (1912) * 19. ''La Guêpe Rouge'' (1912) * 20. ''Les Souliers du Mort'' (1912) * 21. ''Le Train Perdu'' (1912) * 22. ''Les Amours d'un Prince'' (1912) * 23. ''Le Bouquet Tragique'' (1912) ;1913 * 24. ''Le Jockey Masqué'' (1913) * 25. ''Le Cercueil Vide'' (1913) * 26. ''Le Faiseur de Reines'' (1913) * 27. ''Le Cadavre Géant'' (1913) * 28. ''Le Voleur d'Or'' (1913) * 29. ''La Série Rouge'' (1913) * 30. ''L'Hôtel du Crime'' (1913) * 31. ''La Cravate de Chanvre'' (1913) * 32. ''La Fin de Fantômas'' (1913)

The ''Naz-en-l'air'' books by Allain and Souvestre

;1912 * ''Naz-en-l'air'' (1912) * ''Le Secret de Naz-en-l'air'' (1912) * ''L'Ongle cassé'' (1912) * ''Les Tueuses d'hommes'' (1912) ;1913 * ''Le Mystérieux Clubman'' (1913) * ''Le Roi des flics'' (1913) * ''Évadé de bagne'' (1913) * ''Espions de l'air'' (1913) * ''Crimes d'empereur'' (1913) * ''Haine de bandit'' (1913) * ''L'Échéance fatale'' (1913)

Theater works by Allain and Souvestre

* ''Gigolo'', drama in five acts, Paris, Schaub-Barbré (1913), with Marcel Allain * ''Naz-en-l'air'', drama in five acts, Paris, Schaub-Barbré (1913), with Marcel Allain

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Souvestre, Pierre 1874 births 1914 deaths People from Finistère 19th-century French novelists 20th-century French novelists French journalists French crime fiction writers Writers from Brittany French male novelists 19th-century French male writers 20th-century French male writers French male non-fiction writers